Independent Cuban LGBT rights advocates maintain that little has changed in their country in the year since the U.S. and Cuba reestablished diplomatic relations. Nelson Gandulla Díaz, president of the Cuban Federation for LGBTI Rights, told the Washington Blade from the city of Cienfuegos that “everything remains the same.” Fidel Malvarais Pelegrino of Shui Tuix Project, a Havana-based LGBT advocacy group, was equally as pessimistic.

Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in this city expressed support to the passage of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (Sogie) Bill, which is...